MIT’s Cheetah robot is let off its leash, can now run and jump silently across fields

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MIT’s Cheetah robot has finally been let off the leash — and boy can it run. Watch as it bounds across a grass field, and even jumps over a hurdle. It isn’t quite up to the evolutionary magnificence of its biological counterpart, which can hit 60 mph in a couple of seconds, but it’s still pretty impressive. It’s also notable that MIT’s Cheetah is battery powered, which makes it a lot quieter than other similar gasoline-powered robots that sound like a swarm of angry bees. “Our robot can be silent and as efficient as animals. The only things you hear are the feet hitting the ground,” says MIT’s Sangbae Kim.

While there have been lots of high-speed bio-inspired robots in recent years, MIT’s Cheetah sets itself apart by being battery-and-motor driven, rather than engine-and-hydraulics. DARPA (Boston Dynamics) actually had its own robot called Cheetah (later called WildCat), which was capable of some impressive speeds, but its reliance on a gasoline engine made it big and noisy (video embedded at the end of the story). These gasoline-powered robots are still very much bio-inspired — or biomimetic if you will — but they rely on sheer power to try and match the force and speed of their flesh-and-blood counterparts. MIT’s Cheetah takes the alternate route of applying less power but doing so more efficiently, more closely mimicking the musculoskeletal system of a living creature.

The MIT researchers note that there is more than one way to skin a sprinting robot. Historically, to make a robot run faster, you just made the legs move faster. The alternative is to keep the same kind of frequency, but to push down harder at the ground with each step. “Many sprinters, like Usain Bolt, don’t cycle their legs really fast,” MIT’s Kim says. “They actually increase their stride length by pushing downward harder and increasing their ground force, so they can fly more while keeping the same frequency.”

MIT Cheetah, close-up. You can see the high-torque motor on the left. And yes, of course, the MIT team covered the robot in faux cheetah fur.

MIT’s Cheetah uses much the same approach as Usain Bolt, using custom-designed high-torque-density electric motors (designed in-house at MIT), and amplifiers that control the motors (also a custom MIT job). These two technologies, combined with a bio-inspired leg, allow the Cheetah to apply exactly the right amount of force to successfully bound across the ground — and survive a few minor bumps in its path, too, without falling over. When it wants to jump over an obstacle, it just pushes down harder — and pop, up it goes.

For now, the Cheetah can run (untethered) at around 10 mph across grass, and hurdle over obstacles up to 33 centimeters high. The Cheetah currently bounds — a fairly simple gait where the front and rear legs move almost in unison — but galloping, where all four legs move asymmetrically, is the ultimate goal. With a new gait, and a few other tweaks to the control algorithms, MIT hopes that the current Cheetah can hit speeds of up to 30 mph — which would make it the fastest untethered quadruped robot in the world. Imagine that sneaking up on you. Or playing catch in the park.

Sorry, but the unmuffled 2-cycle motor kills it for me. But, the one gotcha, that the thing can’t stand still and has to bounce around at the same frequency all the time. Dunno why it just doesn’t impress me like a lot of MIT toys. For that reason, I’ve never been very impressed by the Cheetah project. However, the Cheetah is more impressive to me then the Wildcat for sure.

Yes, I tried to clarify that… However neither one can do slow-sure footed steps although the Cheetah seems to be getting closer although I think they just slowed down the video. They both always seem like they are so high-strung they are going to explode. While they demonstrate good control while being airborn 95% of the time. I’d like to see them walk slower and smoother at the same time. Put it all together with some things we’ve seen from the Japanese robots. Granted ASIMO is far too slow to do any of these things, but find the medium. Make something that can do both. Run fast, turn sharp, jump, etc. then stop cold and soft-shoe crossed the floor and up the stairs. When they can do that, I think they’ll all be closer to what they are after as limb replacements, etc. Or vehicles as I think I saw mentioned in the MIT video.

Not really. Notice how it marches. Legs pickup and put down at constant intervals. It just has to figure out what to do while it’s up. I guess I’m waiting for something that decides what to do, then picks up a leg and does it instead of deciding what to do with the legs already airborn. Maybe it’s very hard to explain what I mean. I don’t mean to belittle their work either but. The bouncy/marchy system just never quite seemed the right way for me. But maybe I’m wrong. I’m a EE myself, not an ME so… But maybe it’s the simple fact that they don’t have feet. No slow balance system. I guess I’ll just have to assume ‘one thing at a time’ or something. /shrug

massau

i think they just want to create a fast running robot which can jump, they probably already made the normal walking 4 legged robots. next up would be combining them into the robot you described.

That’s what I think too. It’ll come in time but for whatever reason right now, these just don’t seem all that to me.

Feet give us slow movement and balance control. Tiny adjustments to all four sides for example for the simplest control. But when we run, the fastest go up on their toes and the foot becomes almost a spring board. I think to me these types of robots are running without walking, in my mind. Again, as I said in my above post, it’s very hard to explain what I ‘see’ in my mind. Or why… but it’s just how I see it. Still what they have done is very cool. Again, I don’t mean to belittle. So difficult to explain/portray.

massau

personally if i read your comment above i just thought of my cat he can jump, run really fast but it can also run near silent and slowly. you want a cat like robot.

but they already solved the slow walking problem and now interested on the jumping and running part which is much harder to implement. after fast running they will probably go and experiment with balance and precise jumping form platform to platform.

Later on they will combine there robots into the cat like robot which will probably take over the internet.

teatoker

that motor looks like a redesign of a Lynch electric motor. i wonder if its more efficient